Instructions

1. Dip the dates in a strainer into boiling water until the skins blister, then drop them straight into iced water until they are cold. A date skin is waxy and close to waterproof, and this is what cracks it — skip it and the fruit dries from the cut face only, which on a whole date means barely at all.
2. Leave them whole and pitted or whole and stoned as you prefer, but do not cut them. Pierce each date two or three times with a cocktail stick through the blistered skin — with no cut face, those holes are the only route the moisture has.
3. Space them out on the trays so no two touch. A whole date is thick enough that a contact point between two of them stays wet for the entire run.
4. Dehydrate at 52 °C for 48 hours, turning them over once somewhere near the middle. The underside sits against the tray and is the last part to give up its water.
5. Test by cutting one open rather than by feel — a whole date can be leathery on the outside and syrupy at the centre, and the outside tells you nothing. The cut face should be evenly coloured with no wet gloss at the middle.
6. Condition for a fortnight, not a week, shaking the jar every couple of days. A thick fruit redistributes its remaining moisture slowly, and this is the version most likely to look finished and not be.
7. Airtight, cool and dark, about a year. If any date sweats in the jar, the whole batch goes back on the trays — one wet date will bring the others up with it.